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500 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadtgemeinde Lörrach (City of Lörrach, Baden) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 136 × 83 mm |
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| Obverse description | Typeset Notgeld voucher printed in dark red on cream paper, with a fine guilloche scroll underprint filling the field. The city arms of Lörrach — a shield bearing an eagle — appear as a small vignette in the upper left corner, while the denomination numeral '500000 MARK' is set in bold type at the upper right. A decorative border of repeating diamond and cross motifs frames the entire note, and the date 'Lörrach, den 10. August 1923' is printed centrally above the serial number at lower left and the facsimile signature of the Lord Mayor ('Der Oberbürgermeister') at lower right. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is entirely plain, printed on unadorned cream-coloured paper with no text or decorative elements. A blind embossed circular municipal seal of Lörrach, bearing a crowned shield device, is applied at centre-lower field as the sole authenticating mark. |
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| Comments |
Lörrach sits on the Rhine directly across from Basel, and in August–September 1923, when this 500,000 Mark emergency note was issued, the city's proximity to Switzerland was acutely felt — local workers were demanding wages tied to the Swiss Franc because Reichsmarks were losing value faster than payroll could be processed. Municipal authorities across Baden were printing Notgeld not out of administrative choice but out of raw necessity, with no functioning alternative.
The embossed seal was the city's primary — and fairly minimal — concession to authenticity. At the inflation's peak, the cost of the ink and paper to print a note was itself a meaningful fraction of the note's face value.